President Bashar al-Assad (C) and his wife Asma al-Assad (R) cast their votes at a polling station in Maliki, Damascus.

AFP: Syrian presidency

Syrians have voted in an election expected to deliver an overwhelming victory for president Bashar al-Assad but which his opponents have dismissed as a charade in the midst of Syria's devastating civil war.

Rebel fighters, the political opposition in exile, Western powers and Gulf Arabs say no credible poll can be held in a country where swathes of territory are outside state control and millions have been displaced by conflict.

State television showed long queues of people waiting to vote at polling stations in areas under state control, as well as crowds waving flags and portraits of the president.

Mr Assad, looking relaxed and wearing a dark blue suit and light blue tie, voted at a central Damascus polling station with his wife Asma.

For many Syrians, politics took second place to the overriding yearning for stability after three years of war which have killed more than 160,000 people.

"We hope for security and stability," said Hussam al-Din al Aws, an Arabic teacher who was the first person to vote at a polling station at a Damascus secondary school.

Asked who would win, he responded: "God willing, president Bashar al-Assad."

Islamist insurgents battling to overthrow the 48-year-old president, who has ruled Syria since succeeding his father 14 years ago, dismissed the vote as "illegitimate".

But the Islamic Front pledged not to target polling stations, saying it had "decided not to involve civilians in the conflict". It urged other rebels to do the same.

Damascus residents said mortar shells struck residential areas in the capital on Tuesday, most likely fired from rebel suburbs. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Mr Assad is running against two relatively unknown challengers who were approved by a parliament packed with his supporters, the first time in half a century that Syrians have been offered a choice of candidates.

It's a tragic farce. The Syrians in a zone controlled by the Syrian government have a choice of Bashar or Bashar.

French foreign minister Laurent Fabius

The United States condemned the election as a "disgrace", saying Mr Assad's government is "detached from reality".

"Bashar al-Assad has no more credibility today than he did yesterday," State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told a briefing in Washington.

"Detached from reality and devoid of political participation, the Assad regime's staged election today continued a 40-year family legacy of violent suppression that brutally crushes political dissent and fails to fulfill Syrians' aspirations for peace and prosperity."

French foreign minister Laurent Fabius dismissed the poll, saying it was not democratic.

"It's a tragic farce," Mr Fabius said.

"The Syrians in a zone controlled by the Syrian government have a choice of Bashar or Bashar. This man has been described by the UN secretary general as a criminal," he told France 2 television.

Voters cite stability as reason to back Assad

But for many Syrians exhausted by war, particularly the minority Alawite, Christian and Druze communities, the Alawite president offers a bulwark against radical Sunni Muslim insurgents and the promise - however remote - of some form of stability.

At the Masnaa border crossing between Lebanon and Syria, thousands of people stood in the sun in a tightly packed queue to vote at a polling station set up for Syrians inside Lebanon - despite warnings from the government in Beirut that any refugee who crossed back into Syria would lose their refugee status.

All those who spoke to Reuters said they planned to vote for Mr Assad, giving him a third seven-year term.

"I came and made the decision to do this for the sake of myself and my country," said Ghada Makki, 43.

"It is a national duty to vote so that we overcome the crisis happening in Syria."

Some Damascus residents reported only a trickle of voters at polling stations in the centre of the city, but an activist who contacted people in Damascus and the Druze province of Suweida said the numbers of people voting was "scary".

"Lots of people have gone to vote and I'm not talking about the shabbiha," he said, referring to pro-Assad militia.

Foreign minister Walid al-Moualem, draped in a Syrian flag as he voted, dismissed the foreign criticism.

"No one in this world can impose their will on the Syrian people," he said.